Mind GamesConditioned to enhance an inborn ability to acutely perceive another's emotional state, Klavik, security director of a massive world ruled by the sole monarchy in neohuman interstellar society, investigates the ruler's assassination while on holiday in parsecs-distant Eden, a terraformed pleasure world operated by a distant syndicate peopled by alien exotics. A pair of royal companions force themselves upon Klavik during his sojourn in Eden, where his empathic perception “sixth sense” enables him to fasten on a nervous official as a prime suspect to interrogate, but is frustrated because his energies must be channeled toward protecting his illustrious companions. Eden's planetary director, Shatterhand, ushers the threesome into a “hall of mirrors” where nothing is as it seems. After feints and ploys designed to distract or frighten he and his charges away, Klavik senses “nibblings” at the limbic fringes of his mind, and intuits the the presence of an alien telepath. Sly mental assaults persist until his charges are taken hostage, and the ultimate confrontation erupts in a rapacious battle of wills. |
From inside the book
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... Royal Elite Guardsmen and paid an unannounced visit to the underground nuclear arsenal. None of the scientists, engineers, technicians or administrative staffers grilled to date could imagine why the ruler had put in a impromptu ...
... Royal Aerospace Forces icon, the Grand Marshal' s investiture had come about in an unheralded way. Urged by his personal physician to enjoy a rest and rehabilitation holiday, Kewart ab Kraan, Esemplastos, His Omnipotence XXIV, had left ...
... Royal Enclave, he waited impatiently for a bull's-eye landing pad to illuminate on a mid-level Palace roofpark. Disengaging the autopilot, he left the ID transponder activated; lacking its encrypted signal, concentrated laser fire would ...
... Royal Elite Guardsman held the reins of a saddled, riderless kelwaat, marching beside the tawny beast in solemn, slow-step cadence. Although the animal's bullet head and smoothfurred, rippling musculature bore no resemblance to its ...
... Royal Elite Guardsmen, the coffin was lowered below the gleaming tiles into a niche in the royal columbarium. At the sight, it was Prince Kewart who covered the hand of his mother, a comforting gesture. Clad in cloth-of-gold vestments ...